A very strange news day today. We now have three times as many stars in the universe as we thought we had yesterday. All red dwarfs though, so we won’t be able to see them. So as we sit outside this evening gazing heavenwards, we can feel smug at a 300% gain in our viewing quota and enjoy the Emperor's new clothes whilst we can.
Ratcheting up in strangeness is the discovery that some bacteria in California have evolved with Arsenic substituted for Phosphorus in their DNA. With larger atoms, I suppose that this makes them heavyweights amongst the microbe community. It suggests an interesting plot line for a murder mystery where the victim is poisoned with water containing these. Presumably, they can survive in normal water and, if so, the perpetrator could be well away before the deed was discovered. Great novel fodder.
Scaling the heights to the pinnacle of bizarre today brings us to a Los Angeles auction house. They are putting Lee Harvey Oswald’s original pine casket up for sale. It is apparently in a fine state of rot and missing only one handle. It is expected to go for between $60k and $100k. For you youngsters out there, the story goes back to 1981 when conspiracy theories were rife. He was dug up to check he was still there and then sent back in a fine new box for his trouble.
This is where my imagination begins to have problems. Who was hanging on to the original box and what were they doing with it? It not the sort of thing that you would want to store your ‘Work in Progress’ files in, or even those with your ‘Dead Projects’ in, now is it?
Well, I know that those of us who have messy offices can loose papers for a while. I once lost a laptop for eighteen months in mine, through filing it in a box-file labeled ‘computing’ to avoid it being stolen when I went on vacation, and then having such a good time that I forgot where I put it. But loosing a box for twenty-nine years is an achievement way out of my league. I take my hat off to them.
hmm, poisonouse bacteria. very bad
Isn't it amazing - no matter how toxic, there is something that can live on it? Also, isn't it nice to know that there are so many more interesting things to ponder on any given day thant the usual round of politics and pontifications :) I'm sure Agatha would've approved of the plot possibilities of that bacteria. As to Lee Harvey Oswald's old coffin - yeah, it was just sitting on the back porch, thought it was time to clear things off! Just as there is something to feed off of any toxicity, ther are people who will buy anything, so name your price! I'm thinking it would make a good coffee table with a piece of glass on top, no?